Scan 21
The Violin & Its Story: Or the History & Construction of the Violin, 1905
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1was weak and dull, though pleasant. According to Indian tradition, this instrument was invented by Ravana, who was king of Ceylon 5,000 years before the Christian era, and even at the present day it is found in use by the Panderons, a genus of wandering Buddhist monks; while the poorer class of Indians use an instrument somewhat differing from the Ravanastron, but resembling it in its general features.
3The Omerti (Fig. 2) is in its construction brought to a
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7Fig 2.
9THE OMERTI.
11higher finish than the Ravanastron, but is also a two-stringed bowed instrument. The body consists of a cocoa-nut shell, of which one-third is cut away, and the remaining part reduced to a thickness of two millimetres. The sound-table is sometimes of wood, and sometimes of the skin of an animal, while the bridge resembles that of the Ravanastron.
13The two instruments just mentioned cannot, it is self-evident, be considered to be in the realm of art, but must be classed as producers of the original folks-music. Other oriental instruments may be included in the same category—instruments built on similar lines to the Ravanastron and the Omerti, their differences in form being traceable solely to the fancy of their makers. To this class belongs the Rebab (Rebeb, Erbeb, or Rebek) (Fig. 3) of the Arabs. The body of this instrument consists of thin strips, slabs, or ribs of wood of a wedge-like form, across which are stretched two pieces of parchment to form what may be called the "back" and "belly" of
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